New Orleans, LA – Joseph Morgan caught a touchdown pass from Chase Daniel late in the fourth quarter to give the New Orleans Saints a 34-27 win over the Houston Texans in preseason play.
Drew Brees was 17-for-25 with 179 yards and two scores, while Lance Moore caught a score for the Saints, who improved to 2-2 in the preseason.
Matt Schaub passed for 194 yards and a score on 15-of-18 attempts, while Arian Foster ran for a score for the Texans, who fell to 2-1 on the preseason.
Houston tied the game just over four minutes into the fourth when Shayne Graham kicked a 53-yard field goal to make it 27-all.
New Orleans, though, answered with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that ate up over seven minutes of the clock and was capped on a four-yard catch in the end zone by Morgan from Daniel for a 34-27 lead.
Houston was unable to mount a successful counter drive before time ran out.
Each team scored a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter as a one-yard touchdown run from Ben Tate and 10-yard scoring catch by Keshawn Martine from Schaub staked Houston to a 14-0 lead.
New Orleans, though, struck quick as a 20-yard touchdown pass by Brees to Moore was quickly followed by another score as Trindon Holliday fumbled the kickoff and Junior Galette returned it 16 yards for the score.
A 22-yard field goal from Garrett Hartley 3 1/2 minutes into the second gave the Saints a 17-14 lead, but Foster answered with a six-yard score a bit later following a Saints fumble that Houston recovered at the New Orleans 10-yard line.
Randy Bullock hit a 33-yard field goal with just over two minutes to play in the first half to give Houston a 24-17 lead, but the Saints tied the game entering the locker room on an eight-yard TD catch by Graham from Brees.
Hartley's 24-yard field goal just under six minutes into the third accounted for the only points of the quarter as the Saints took a 27-24 lead into the final quarter.
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